Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney - A Show About Ideas Creativity And Innovation

Over the years, I noticed that I seem to get a similar set of questions from the participants at my talks, workshops, and innovation boot camps. What this tells me is that there are a set of common questions about innovation that are on everyone's mind. Here are the 9 common questions on innovation that I get. How do I define innovation? Innovation is when an idea becomes real to the point where someone is willing to exchange value to get it. Ideas are easy. Turning them into something that has impact is really hard. What is a killer innovation? Some people over the years have criticized and attacked my use of the word “killer”. When I started the show back in 2005, the word “killer” was used to describe things like “killer apps” which is translated to — “best app”. My definition of killer innovations is an innovation that is a significant and highly profitable departure from current offerings or practices that would be difficult to duplicate. So … incremental innovation is of no value? NO. There are multiple types of innovations and incremental is just as important as the others. An incremental innovation is when you build on top of an existing innovation with something new and unique. Incremental innovations are highly valuable since most organizations depend on these incremental innovations to pay the rent while the next disruptive innovation is being worked on. Why is innovation so difficult? Its not just about the idea. There are a lot of pieces that must come together to turn an idea into a game changing — killer innovation. And most of these things you are not in control of. What are some of the things you cannot control? One thing critical to innovation success that you cannot control is timing. You may have the best idea but if the market is not ready, technology is not ready, government regulations are not ready — you're stuck. Remember that Steve Jobs and Apple did NOT invent the smart phone. Depending on who you talk to, it was either Nokia and/or Palm. Steve and Apple just got the timing right. What are some of the things you CAN control? Your team. Innovation is a team sport. Who you hire — who you allow to be on your team — will be the most important decision you make. I look for passion and culture fit. I can teach skills. I cannot teach/inject passion. And if you're a jerk, then there is no room on my team for you. What is one of the biggest mistakes more organizations make when it comes to innovation? Creating a culture where “failure” is not allowed. Innovation is all about failure. If you aren't failing, you aren't innovating. Best in class teams and organizations have a 90% failure rate. If your's is lower, then you are not stretching. You are making the safe bets. If you're failure rate is above 90%, then take a look at how you are selecting and managing your idea funnel. How can organizations get over their fear of failure? By celebrating failure when they occur versus hiding them. In a previous role, I actually put in place a bonus system that would reward failure. You need to send the message that a willingness to take risks and try is just as important as the successes. WARNING: If an organization has a history of punishing failure such as firing or demoting people whose project didn't succeed, then changing the culture will be incredibly HARD if not impossible. What is another mistake most organizations make? Most senior leader lack patience.

Technology megatrends, or what some call long range technology roadmaps, are an important input into your strategic thinking as you build your innovation pipeline. I've been researching, tracking and presenting on technology megatrends for the last 30 years of my career. During a live show broadcast on Facebook, a member of the audience asked about what technology trends would have major impact on businesses. Rather than just giving a quick off hand answer, I took on objective of giving you insight into the technology megatrends that I'm tracking. The megatrends will have significant impact on society, governments, businesses industries and career. Background on Technology Megatrends How do you get from technology to innovation? When I think about technology, I look specifically at exponential technologies such as Moore's Law. I think what capabilities it will bring 2, 3 even 5 generations in the future. This in turns starts to inspire exponential ideas. These are the ideas that are disruptive to industries and economies. The final step is to translate these exponential ideas and turn them in to exponential innovations. So — for me, it all begins with looking at technology that could be transformative. Major Technology Megatrends Catalyst & Building Block Technologies: These are technologies that are combined with others to create resulting innovations. For example, high density batteries in the future and their role in innovating transportation. Perceptive Technologies: Technoligies that acquire input from the world and transform it into a useful purpose. This include machine learning (taking large amounts of data and looking for pasterns) and macro robots that learn by observing. Immersive Media: How will we receive and consume media in the future? These technologies cover the range from flexible displays to smart vision contact lenses. Augmented Communications: The ability to enhance and improve our ability to communication and collaborate can transform society and relationships. For example, the transition from immersive telepresence to holographic volumetric displays will allow true seamless collaboration across distances. Experience Continuum: Enhanced experiences from technologies are just around the corner. Imagine virtual travel where you can experience people, places and things you never thought possible. How will that impact the empathy of others when you can see and experience people from around the world in their environment. Long Better Lives: I can make one prediction that I'm 100% positive I will get right. We are all getting older. Technology can play a critical role that will allow us to age gracefully and make the near future a better place. One technology that I'm particularly interested in is genome-matched treatment that would allow Dr's to create cures for a specific person based on their genetic code. Sensor-Driven World: Sensors will allow these other technologies to become smarter about the environment around us. This in turn will enhance our ability to take advantage of the technology megatrends we've been talking about.

Over the last few decades, the importance of design has been growing in the context of how to create disruptive game-changing innovations. Human centered design (HCD) is the way that innovators integrate design with a clear view of customer in to the process of creating an innovation that has impact. Be careful as bad design can doom innovation to the trash heap. What is human centered design? Early Inspiration Many guests on the show have shared their inspirations when it comes innovation and design. This week is no different. Our guest, Gordon Stannis, shared how a 9 month cross country bike ride sabbatical armed him with a sense of fearless curiosity. By meeting and talking with a wide range of people from different backgrounds, Gordon became equipped to represent them and needs when designing products and services. He took that experience and perspective to leading design positions at Herman Miller, BMW Group and Prince / Johnson Controls. Even with that experience, he recognized the need to do more. It just wasn't about design but an integrated discipline of design plus technology. Started Twisthink Gordon and a partner (who was technical) made the decision to create a company that was both design and technical with some unusual characteristics. There are no departments so no silo's could get established. To reinforce this, every six months Gordon re-shuffles where people set. This creates a constant sense of making of new connections across the organization. Advice On Human Centered Design (HCD) And Innovation What are the three pieces of advice Gordon gave for organizations who are thinking about embracing human centered design? Develop a common language: Teams should create a process and language of human centered design and then train everyone in your organization to understand and use it. This will allow anyone to then run with it on their own. Visualize: Vizio, PowerPoint and project charts are not tools of visualizing the solution. Organizations need to embrace the process of creating 3D highly visualized forms of the ideas and put them up for everyone to see. Not on some some small whiteboard. Take up the entire wall 10 feet high. Immerse yourself and the team in the visual representation of the innovation. Understand the hierarchy of innovation: There is a hierarchy of innovation that organizations needs to understand and reward individuals and teams for achieving. These are: * Curiosity (Like the parking lot when attempting a climb) * Imagination (Base camp) * Creativity (Mid-camp) * Innovation (Peak of the mountain) About Gordon Stannis Gordon Stannis is the Director of Design and Strategy at Twisthink.  One of Gordon’s greatest accomplishments is Co-Creating Twisthink based on the belief that there was a better way to create and deliver value to clients battling against the relentless wave action of commoditization. Gordon holds a large number of Utility Patents and International Design Awards in transportation, consumer electronics, durable goods, medical, furniture and more.  

When it comes to sourcing innovation, most focus on trying to come up with a clever technical or business hook. Over years of experience of both innovation success and failures, I've uncovered three areas of focus for sourcing innovation that will have significant impact. Before jumping into the three areas of focus, there is a basic skill that is required. That is the ability to create questions that will cause you to look at these three areas differently. Power of Questions I believe that a good question is one that causes people to really think before they answer it, and one that reveals answers that had previously eluded them. Our ability to ask and answer question is uniquely human. According to primatologists, the great apes can understand and answer simple questions. However, unlike humans, a great ape has never proven that it can ask questions. Learning how to use the power of questions to think differently is a skill that everyone has — even if it’s not your automatic instinct. I believe that anyone can develop and harness this power through the use of provocative questioning and discovery. Secret #1 – People The key to many innovation successes is to dig deep and understand the customer/user of your innovation. I'm not a fan of using third party definitions of customer segments. If you are going source innovation that are different from everyone else, you need to have unique insights of your target customers. These insights will allow you to uncover their unspoken needs and wants. See the slides below for common and not so common ways others look at customer segments. Take a look at the customer segments I talked about in the show. Secret #2 – Time Time is valuable. You can't save it. You can't store it. You can't but more of it. Its perishable. Innovations that understand and find unique ways to make time even more valuable to customers can find themselves in a unique and defensible position. See the slides below for unique ways to think and innovate time. Secret #3 – Money Rather than think like other innovators when they think of money (e.g. this idea will make me rich), focus on how to deliver value to your customer. If you innovate ways for them to make more, save more, get more items for less, protect money, etc — you will separate yourself from most of your competition. Bonus Secret: Pitching Your Idea Once I've discovered an idea that I believe in, then I need to find a way to show and tell others what I'm thinking. One of the most impactful ways in through vision videos. Vision video's use strategic storytelling to place the person in the middle of the story and create empathy for the impact of your idea. Done right — they will attract others who will want to invest time and in money to realize your vision. Sourcing Innovation Now you know my secrets to better sourcing of innovation. The key is to look beyond the obvious and align your innovations to people, time and money.   For help and guidance in sourcing innovation for your organizations, check out The Innovators Network.

Some of the smartest, most creative people I know spend time doing nothing but thinking. For example Einstein was often criticized for his daydreaming. His form of daydreaming was to run his thought experiments.  Experiments carried out completely within his imagination. Our society doesn't embrace or allow for daydreaming. Most organizations view this as being lazy and unproductive. Companies are focused are measuring things like hours worked, project deliverables and improved productivity. Henry Ford and Daydreaming There is a famous Henry Ford story where an efficiency expert he had hired complained about a man who sat at his desk with his feet up. The expert's point was the obvious lack of productivity and output from this person. Ford said that that specific person came up with an idea that saved him millions by setting at his desk and just thinking. Ford added that he was paying that man to come up with the next great idea. When I look at people whose ideas have changed the world, daydreaming combined with “reflective thinking” was a common trait. Is it a coincidence or is there something to this? Daydreaming Experiment To either prove or disprove the hypothesis that daydreaming improves creativity, I'm proposing an experiment. This experiment was inspired by Zat Rana. I commit (and invite you to do it yourself) to two hours per week for two months of focused daydreaming. What does that mean? * No computer * No mobile phone * No music * No talking I will be using my Moleskine notebook to record my thoughts and ideas to see if I can notice an improvement in my personal creativity. How To Get Started Daydreaming? One way to spark your daydreaming is to simply ask yourself a set of questions. Here are few to start with (again, inspired by Zat Rana) * Do I have the right set of priorities and do I apply them? * Is my work/life balance working? * What idea do I have that I am not pursuing? * What small step could I take that would have a MAJOR impact on the idea * Where do you want to be in one year with your idea with your life? Be Part Of The Experiment If you are part of The Community, I will setup a Slack channel for this experiment so that we can discuss, share and track the results. If you are not part of The Innovators Community, you should check it out. Its a community of innovators and creatives from around the world who share, challenge and grow as innovators. I will also share my results in a future show. Show Links: * Join The Innovators Community — where you can meet, discuss and be part of a community of innovators. This is a private slack community. * Check out , “Using 30-Day Challenges to Jumpstart Your Creativity“

When I was a software engineer, one area of importance was the design and testing of user interfaces. The work was frustrating because you had to decipher what the user was “thinking” to understand how they would use your software. Over the years, the research has taken on the challenges of human computer interaction with next generation technology. Our guest today, Dr. Chris Harrison from Carnegie Mellow University, is the Assistant Professor of Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. While this is his work today, his Master's research thesis was in understanding if a persons activities (timeline) could be used to better organize documents. This idea of improving human computer interaction around documents led to his PhD research that focused on next generation technology around touch. Human Computer Interaction In addition to his own research area, he also oversees the Future Interfaces Group (FIG) as CMU. The mission and purpose of FIG is: This work goes beyond the technology of touch to also include the psychology and human response to find better ways to allow next generation technology to be a tool that is easier to use and benefit from. Next Generation Technology: Electrick Electrik is focused on bringing touch to volume and shapes not achievable with today's technology. By using a “poor conducting” paint, this solution allows you to easily enable touch interfaces and interactions on all kinds of surfaces such as car steering wheels, table tops, toys, etc. One immediate application for this new technology is in the area of “fast prototyping“. You can now create a 3D printer prototype, apply Electrick and create the interaction experience of the prototype .. all with hours or days rather than months. Next Generation Technology: Infobulb (light bulb 2.0) Chris also shared his work on bringing touch interaction to any surface without the need for special treatment. His vision is to create the next generation light bulb, what he is calling infobulb. It deliver information in addition to light. The surface that the lift falls on creating a new kind of human computer interaction. The surface becomes touch enabled. To learn more, check out Chris's intervew over at TechRepublic. About Chris Harrison: Chris Harrison is an Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. He broadly investigates novel sensing technologies and interaction techniques, especially those that empower people to interact with small devices in big ways. He has been named: * Top 30 scientist under 30 by Forbes * Top 35 innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review * A Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum * One of six innovators to watch by Smithsonian Last year, his lab won a Fast Company Innovation by Design Award for their work on EM-Sense. Chris has also been awarded fellowships by the Packard Foundation, Google, Qualcomm and Microsoft Research. * Website at ChrisHarrison.net * Chris on twitter (@hciprof) Show Links * Join The Innovators Community — where you can meet, discuss and be part of a community of innovators. This is a private slack community.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)  is quickly becoming a key element for today's innovations. While many think that AI is new, its been around for decades but just now finding the traction it needs to be applied to a broad set of innovations. In today's show, we have a discussion with Kerri McMaster, co-founder and head of strategy for Performance Labs, who shares the 25 year process of applying big data and AI to improving the performance of amateur and professional athletes. Topics/show highlights we discussed: * The question we asked ourselves: If we had enough data on people's physical capabilities — what could we do to have lifestyle impact? * Kerri's inspiration was the Polar heart rate monitor which triggered the “what if” 25 years ago that led to formation of Performance Labs. * Shared the traumatic effort to transition from capturing data to automating the analysis. It took much longer than anticipated. * How being naive was a big help. * Sharing the difficulty of using artificial intelligence before it was ready. * What did it feel like that Performance Labs was in big data before big data was cool. * How to use continues testing to see when the market would be ready to accept the new product. * How the Apple Nano + Nike Foot Pod was the tipping point that caused Performance Labs to build their prototype. * Learning how to understand when customers are ready to absorb this new idea. * Getting the timing right was and is their biggest challenge. * Using product families to manage and mitigate risk for customer readiness. * The role big data and artificial intelligence play in their product. * Best advice … * Be careful to not over invest. Timing is everything. * Don't let lack of experience hold you back. Don't let fear stop you. About Kerri McMaster: Kerri is a serial entrepreneur with a focus on startups. Her particular emphasis is on product and market validation along with strategy and business development. She is the co-founder and head of strategy of Performance Lab which specializes in in activity analytics and automated coaching with the goal to “nudge” behavioral change and improve performance outcomes for amateur and professional athletes. About Performance Labs: Performance Lab changes lives through fitness and wellness coaching. A pioneer in the use of monitoring technology, Performance Lab built the first commercial sports lab in the world 20 years ago, and since then has collected data involving tens of thousands of athletes and users at all levels. For 15 years data was collected largely in the lab; for the last five years it has been collected exclusively in the field using wearable sensors, providing Performance Lab with a vast amount of unparalleled domain expertise. Bringing together this unique perspective with sports science, coaching and technology to understand and formulate the correlations between data, activity types, and performance results, Performance Lab created the ARDA Coaching Engine. Performance Lab has been using and refining its ARDA coaching methodology as the foundation of its corporate health and wellness services, with tremendous success. Of the hundreds of casual sportspeople and sedentary individuals we have trained for a half marathon, 90% of the participants reached the start line – and every one of them finished. These rates are triple the industry average. The ARDA Coaching Engine was conceived by Performance Lab co-founder Jon Ackland, an internationally regarded exercise physiologist and sports performance consultant whose clients include world champions and world record...

The hope and dream of every innovator is to come up with an idea that disrupts and transforms industries. To do it multiple times over a career puts that person in to a category of being a disruptive entrepreneur. Our guest this week, Sachin Dev Duggal, is an innovator, serial entrepreneur, and an advocate of enterprise that create social impact through a creative approach to giving away services to charities along with equity in his companies. Topics covered in today's show: * How at 14, he got his start being an entrepreneur following the accidental destruction of a PC. * Why he started his first company and what he learned from it. * His entrepreneurial and innovators experience at age 17 inside Deutsche Bank. * Discussing the dream that inspired him to become a disruptive entrepreneur that shook up the PC industry. * The challenges of trying to disrupt an established industry. * His frustration on what he couldn't do with his first major success which was to support more charitable work. * How he is supporting his foundation/charitable work with his new company. * How he supports new ideas and opportunities for innovation by support and funding multiple companies. * His four pieces of advice he would give to new disruptive entrepreneurs? (hint: one is about perseverance) About Sachin Dev Duggal: Sachin was the co-founder of nivio, the company that first made Windows available over the Internet. He continued his role of being a disruptive entrepreneur and sits on the board of Planet M (a large Indian retail chain), chairs his original technology solutions company SD 2 Labs, and is an advisor to Eros Digital; the digital arm of Bollywood’ premiere distribution company. Sachin’s profile is an unusual mix of experiences & disruption. He was an entrepreneur at 15, worked for the United Nations and helped write the declaration of youth rights before he completed his first degree from Imperial College. Sachin has also built a successful software business (www.sd2labs.com) and was a young investment-banker (at Deutsche Bank) building complex trading models at 17. The software company continues to grow year on year and now has just over 100 people in India and the US. He began his professional career at the age of 15, when he formed SMX Corporation (now sd2labs) along with his best friend. In August 2004, Sachin co-founded nivio with a view to disrupt the old compute model; and got seed funding from two of his bosses! Fast forward to 4 years later, nivio was selected as a technology pioneer at the World Economic Forum . Sachin made history in being the youngest attendees at the WEF in Davos. To fuilfill his desire to help others, he has put aside stock in all major businesses he works in with Saurabh to their foundation and other notable charities such as Keep a Child Alive. His mission is what he calls 100×50 (100m kids educated in 50 years) through their Sachin & Saurabh Foundation, a not-for-profit set up to deliver that dream. Sachin’s other accolades include the MIT TR35 Indian Innovator of the Year, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Leader of Tomorrow, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, the BBC Young Asian achiever of the Year and UNEP Global 500 Youth Award. Sachin is also the Youth Leader of the National Computer and Electronics Committee of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. Show Links: * Sachin on LinkedIn * Sachin on Twitter * Shoto  * Sachin on Angel List *

When you are tasked with coming up with a new produce or service, the immediate reaction for most is to panic. Where and how do you start? The approach I've used for decades and that has helped me to create hundreds of products and services generating billions in revenue — ask questions. There is a power in questions. Its one of those actions that requires others to take action. If I ask you question such as; What is half of thirteen? You cannot stop your self from answering it. If you gave the answer as 6.5, you get an ‘A' if this was a math test. If this was an innovation test, maybe a ‘C-‘. Why? You like 95% of your competitors stop at the first obvious answer. To find game-changing ideas, you need to go beyond the obvious. The following is a high level overview of the steps I use to find ideas for new products and services based on questions. If this topic is of interest, I would suggest you listen to the podcast below. You can also download the PDF mentioned in the show. Step 1: Ask questions to understand the assumptions you and others operate under. * What are the assumptions under which my industry operates? * What are the assumptions under which my business operates? Step 2: Use questions to look at unexpected jolts to your industry and business. * What are the unexpected jolts that could transform your business? Step 3: Use questions to fuel your ideation process. * Who Questions: * #8 – What customer segment will emerge in 5 years that doesn't exist today? * #12 – How will I identify and locate customers in five years? * What Questions: * #4 – What features of my product create unanticipated passion? * #10 – What products could I create out of unused assets? * How Questions: * #4 – What features of my product create unanticipated passion? * #10 – What products could I create out of unused assets? Step 4: Use Questions to rank the ideas generated and identify the top 3 or 4 to work on. For more on how to use questions (with sample questions), download the PDF of How To Use Questions To Find New Ideas Show Links: If you would like to purchase the Killer Question Card Deck, then visit Innovation.Tools.

In June 2007, after finding himself creatively drained,  Noah started a personal project — Skull-A-Day. This yearlong art project's objectives was to create challenges that would jumpstart his personal creative energy.  What started out as a personal project ended up transforming his creative future. The project went viral and became an Internet sensation which led to a Webby award along with appearances on TV, magazines, and a book. Skull-A-Day went on to become a user-generated tool for inspiring creativity in people, young and old, around the world. The response from Noah's fans inspired a series of books about daily creative work. To help bring this to the business world, Noah and his sister Mica Scalin formed an art & innovation consultancy that works with Fortune 500 companies. Topics Phil and Noah discussed included: * His background and how he came to be an artist (hint: parents are both artists) * How the Skull-a-Day project got started * His experience of having a private personal art project, Skul-A-Day, go viral and how it transformed his career and his life * How daily challenges can be the spark to personal creativity * The creativity of kids and how they can inspire adults. * His new book, Creative Sprint: Six 30-Day Challenges to Jumpstart Your Creativity. * His consulting and speaking business that was the result of Skul-A-Day. * What's next for him? About Noah Scalin: Noah Scalin is the first artist-in-residence at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business. He is creator of the Webby Award winning project Skull-A-Day and the collaborative science fiction universe & performance art project League of Space Pirates. His fine art has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Mütter Museum and Krause Gallery in NYC. His work has been featured in dozens of publications including Fast Company, Juxtapos, Beautiful/Decay, USA Today, The Telegraph, and the New York Times. Noah co-runs Another Limited Rebellion an art & innovation consulting firm and is a sought after public speaker on creativity. He is the author of six books, including most recently Creative Sprint – which he co-wrote with his sister/business partner Mica Scalin. Contact Information fro Noah Scalin: * Noah Scalin website * Noah Scalin on Facebook * Noah Scalin on Instagram * Another Limited Rebellion (Noah's consulting firm)

Culture is hard and creating and maintaining an innovation culture is even harder. One of the challenges for creating a culture of innovation within an organization is our ability to get along with others. Innovation is about constant change which is uncomfortable and stressful. The result is that some individuals/groups will not respond and actually become quite negative (innovation anti-bodies) to the innovation effort. What are you to do? How do you build a bridge to these individuals/groups? How do you get along with others who react so negatively to your ideas? When I was CTO at HP, I was struggling in getting someone in particular to work with me. One of the HP alumni suggested I read David Packard's “11 Simple Rules For Getting Along With Other”. So I ventured over to the official HP archive and got a copy of the original notes. “Elegant” and “timeless” are the best descriptions of the rules first presented by Dave Packard at HP's second annual management conference in 1958 in Sonoma, California. As you read them, which are the ones you need to work on? 11 Simple Rules To Help Us Get Along With Others 1. Think first of the other fellow. This is THE foundation – the first requisite – for getting along with others. And it is the one truly difficult accomplishment you must make. Gaining this, the rest will be “a breeze.” 2. Build up the other person's sense of importance. When we make the other person seem less important, we frustrate one of his deepest urges. Allow him to feel equality or superiority, and we can easily get along with him. 3. Respect the other man's personality rights. Respect as something sacred the other fellow's right to be different from you. No two personalities are ever molded by precisely the same forces. 4. Give sincere appreciation. If we think someone has done a thing well, we should never hesitate to let him know it. WARNING: This does not mean promiscuous use of obvious flattery. Flattery with most intelligent people gets exactly the reaction it deserves – contempt for the egotistical “phony” who stoops to it. 5. Eliminate the negative. Criticism seldom does what its user intends, for it invariably causes resentment. The tiniest bit of disapproval can sometimes cause a resentment which will rankle – to your disadvantage – for years. 6. Avoid openly trying to reform people. Every man knows he is imperfect, but he doesn't want someone else trying to correct his faults. If you want to improve a person, help him to embrace a higher working goal – a standard, an ideal – and he will do his own “making over” far more effectively than you can do it for him. 7. Try to understand the other person. How would you react to similar circumstances? When you begin to see the “whys” of him you can't help but get along better with him. 8. Check first impressions. We are especially prone to dislike some people on first sight because of some vague resemblance (of which we are usually unaware) to someone else whom we have had reason to dislike. Follow Abraham Lincoln's famous self-instruction: “I do not like that man; therefore I shall get to know him better.” 9. Take care with the little details. Watch your smile, your tone of voice, how you use your eyes, the way you greet people, the use of nicknames and remembering faces, names and dates. Little things add polish to your skill in dealing with people. Constantly, deliberately think of them until they become a natural part of your personality. 10. Develop genuine interest in people. You cannot successfully apply the foregoing suggestions unless you have a sincere desire t...

As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. As I look back over my career leading innovation teams and organizations, I wish someone had sat me down and shared some of the core fundamentals to innovation leadership. These “hacks” are part of my core rules that I attempt to follow. I'm not perfect and still stumble but when I look back at the keys to my career, these hacks/actions were key. 5 Innovation Leadership Hacks #1 – Create A Foundation of Integrity and Transparency: Integrity is foundational to me. Success for an innovation leader depends on trust and that is built on integrity. Without it, you can't convince people to take on the hardest task they've ever done. Recall what you felt when a boss or coworker was dishonest with you. It was hard to trust them — and even harder to follow them.  Don't forget about transparency. Transparency is the “verify” side of integrity. Its what keeps you from going off the rails on the integrity. Hard to be sneaky in the bright light of being transparent. Make integrity and transparency part of your innovation culture. #2 – Create a Sense of Mission: When you are creating an organization that will need to fight the innovation antibodies, you need to make the task a mission. You need to be able to answer the question, “why will this be the most important thing I've ever done?”. One way to word this mission is to frame it as a BHAG (Bold Harry Audacious Goal). Don't give them the “how” but instead create the mission by defining the “what” and “why”. Leave it to your innovators to innovate. #3 – Be Clear with the Priorities and Objectives: Make sure to set clear innovation objectives. Innovation is already incredibly hard without the confusion of ambiguous fuzzy objectives. Once the objectives are set, show your team how you will prioritize tasks against achieving the objectives. I personally use the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize what's urgent and important. I also have created a personal set of priorities that I use to keep myself on track on what is important. I call it the “5 F's” — faith, family, friends, fitness and finance. #4: Let Others be the Hero: Don't let your ego stumble your innovation leadership efforts. Innovation is a team sport and therefore any success in because of the team – and in spite of your leadership. We all struggle with this. We would like to think that the success comes from the leader but it doesn't. Share the spotlight. Highlight the work of the team. Your role is to help your team succeed — not to get that next promotion, the next raise — the next bonus. Trust me — that will all come. Don't get distracted. #5: Hire the Radicals: One of my secrets to the success my teams have had is because of the recruiting and nurturing of radicals. These are the people who others will reject. They challenge the organization to think and act differently. These are the people who will make you uncomfortable as a leader. These radicals require protection as the innovation antibodies will be especially focused on them. Why do I think they are so important? They are the fuel to your innovation efforts. I'm sure I can come up with more hacks but these are the ones that I consider fundamental when it comes to being an innovation leader. Are there ones that you've developed over the years? What are they and why? Show Links: * Leaders in Innovation: How They’re Creating Cultures of Creativity

During a recent mentoring session with a Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) of a major multi-national company, the executive expressed a private fear. He attributes his past success as “being lucky” .. “being in the right place at the right time”. His fear is someone would find out that “he wasn't that good” and this his “fraud” would be reveled. He was suffering from impostor syndrome and it was impacting his ability to innovate. What is impostor syndrome? What you may find interesting is that most everyone suffers from impostor syndrome at some point in their lives. I have struggled with it myself. Those who are working in the innovation and creative roles are more likely to suffer from impostor syndrome. Why? Because innovation and creativity are thought of as “gifts”. They have come to believe the lie that says your creativity is not the result of you but a gift you were given. Which is bogus. Creativity is a skill — a skill you can learn — a skill you can practice and a skill you can become proficient at. But to realize your full creative ability, you need to get over the impostor syndrome. How? How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome Here are four (4) steps I used with the executive during the mentoring session: Step 1: Acknowledge that others see your success: Collect notes, emails, messages, etc that others have sent you congratulating you on your success. Review them and acknowledge that others see you as successful. I have collected all the email people have sent me that were note of acknowledgement, success and of thanks. Step 2: Practice positive affirmation: Write out a set of daily affirmations that you will then say out loud as you begin each day. Why? It will counteract our natural process of negastive talk. As humans, we use any criticism (from others or of ourselves) to justify why we aren't that good. My creating a set of positive affirmations, we can change the perspective of ourselves. Step 3: Failure doesn't make you a fake: The best athletes have a high failure rate. Why should you be any different? Failure is a part of the innovation game and should never be viewed as a negative. Failure is proof you are trying. How do you get over them? Share you failures. In Silicon Valley, organizations now host FailCon‘s in an attempt to help people acknowledge that failures are not bad — and to move on. Hold your own personal FailCon. Step 4: Take action: The impostor syndrome is a concept that cannot survive against action. Go and be creative. Go and create the next great innovation. By stepping out and taking action, you are telling yourself that yes your are creative and that your are not a fraud. If you let the impostor syndrome go on and not challenge it, it can be debilitating. So challenge it and don't look back. One final word of advice, when you experience that next piece of criticism about your work, you may fall back into the impostor syndrome. Don't. Criticism is part of the game when it comes to creativity and innovation. Get up and try again — and never give up. The world needs innovators like you to create that next game-changing innovation.   Show Notes/Links: * Is the fear of failure killing your creativity and hindering your success? * FailCon  *

I came across a recent article where the Managing Director of Accenture Digital made the bold claim that large companies cannot do innovation. More accurately, Narry Singh said, “.. Corporate innovation does not work.” He goes on to claim that innovation at large companies do not work because “.. the firms are too slow to move – to change their work practices.” Do you think  large companies can be successful at innovation? His answer to this challenge? Work with start-ups. Sounds like a once-size-fits-all type of strategy. I flat out disagree. I created and ran the Innovation Program Office (IPO) at HP for 8 years where that team launched +20 new products across HP's global footprint. Large companies can be successful at innovation with the right structure, the right culture and an understanding of how to apply to laws of innovation to them. Here are the first six (6) steps large companies should take to be successful at innovation. Step 1: Innovation Team Leadership The innovation team needs a leader and you need to find that person. Some will say that you should go outside. I would encourage you to look internally first. In my experience, you have someone in the organization who can be a great leader. They are just hidden in large organizations. Step 2: Recruit The Innovation Team Be on the look out for people to join the team. I look for passion. I can teach the business and technical skills but I cannot teach passion. But not just passion — but passion that is executed upon. Taking recruiting for the innovation team seriously. Its the difference between success and failure. Step 3: Innovation Governance Be careful how you setup governance around project approval. Innovation anti-bodies will come out in droves if they think they can control the effort by being part of the approval process. In my current role as a CEO, I use governance as a way to grant approval rather than a way to exert control. For example, every employee no matter your role gets $1,000/year to work on an idea. Each team in the organization can spend up to $50,000/year on idea(s) without needing approval. The innovation leaders can approve work on any idea up to $250,000 without needing leadership/executive approval. Step 4: Go Outside For Ideas All organizations big and small need to recognize that they are not the only source for great ideas. Great innovation teams go outside to find ideas that they can use as a spark for new products and services. Some outside sources for ideas include: University research, co-innovation, startup/vc's, ecosystem innovation and government funded grants. Step 5: Stay Stealth Once you have your innovation team is up and moving, stay hidden – go stealth. Innovation antibodies can't attack what they don't see. The hardest part of managing a high performing team is to get the team to not talk about the great work they are doing.  Everyone likes to get recognition and credit for the work they do. You can't stay stealth forever — but be deliberate when you crack open the door and let others see what you are doing. Step 6: Create a New Funding Model For Innovation Typical company funding model is built around the annual budget cycle.  That's fine for the normal operations of a business but innovation doesn't operate on an annual time frame. To enable innovation, you need to create a funding approach that is not contained to budget approval activities. How to get this in place?

Innovation is all about change. The need to change includes you and your career, the organizations you are a part of and even the governments that serve us. This change requires us to be in a constant state of being uncomfortable. This weeks guest on the show is Gretchen McClain. I met Gretchen back in 1998 when she was the Chief Director for the International Space Station program for NASA. She started her career as a mechanical engineer, went on to oversea a key project for NASA and then goes on to become a stand-out leader in the commercial industry. Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable During the show we discussed: * What inspired her to become an engineer. * The role of a support network, in her case – parents and siblings, towards her becoming an engineer. * Her experience in an internship that set the foundation. * How she get hired at NASA. * What was it like to land a position where the mission had such global impact. * Her experience in dealing with government leaders acting as the innovation antibodies. * The thinking behind inviting other countries to be part of the International Space Station — including Russia and Japan. * How to deal with silo's to achieve the bigger goal. * The challenges of transitioning from government to the commercial sector. * How taking risks (raising your hand and being uncomfortable) is scary but a critical step to career success. * Asking for help is not a sign of weakness or failure. * The fear of failure will hold you back. Three Pieces of Advice to College Students * Believe in yourself: Empower yourself to take risks and to risk failure. Surround yourself with people who can help you achieve the success you desire. Declare the success you want. * Lead with a power vision: Create a common/shared inspiration that your teams can support and want to be a part of. * Stay in the “rookie mode”: Never forget what it was like when you first started your career and never loose the tension. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. About Gretchen McClain: Gretchen W. McClain is an accomplished business leader who thrives on energizing organizations and building businesses by enhancing innovation and developing exceptional leadership talent. With more than 25 years of global experience in both Fortune 500 corporations and government service, including serving as founding CEO of an S&P 500 global water technology company, Xylem Inc., and NASA’s Chief Director of the International Space Station, McClain brings extensive business, developmental, strategic and technical expertise. Her distinctive leadership approach – focused on helping companies break down internal barriers to identify new ways to create value and integrate technologies – enables organizations to unlock growth and gain critical competitive advantage. McClain serves as a Board of Director for publicly traded companies: AMETEK, Inc., Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation, and Boart Longyear Limited, and a private family owned business, J.M. Huber Corporation and serves as an Advisor to EPIC Ventures. Through her consulting practice, GWMcClain Advisory Services, she provides leadership and business services to executives, frequently working with start-up businesses and private equity firms. McClain is also a thought leader and speaker on connecting your work to your higher purpose, becoming a stand-out leader,